"It's true there's a case like that (birth of a headless baby) but it's very rare to have such a situation though it's generally known as a congenital abnormality, which is basically a deformation that occurs to a foetus during the early stages of pregnancy," he said.

"The headless foetus was incompatible with life after premature birth, while the other twin who was born alive but with a very big head, died after a few minutes," added Dr Shamu.

He said the mother of the twins was still detained to monitor her condition. "We can't unfortunately disclose the identity of the woman save to say that her condition is stable. It's very rare for a person to give birth to a child without a head," said Dr Shamu.